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The Purchasing Console

The Purchasing console is the purchase-to-pay workspace for back-office staff: raise requisitions, approve them, issue orders, book deliveries in, get supplier bills matched and posted, maintain suppliers and pay them. Every step is checked by the same rules wherever it is taken, so the console offers only the moves you are allowed to make.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Purchasing:

  • Purchasing — the purchasing workspace; the badge counts requisitions submitted and orders pending approval

Admin Panel → Payables:

  • Invoice Match Queue — supplier bills held because they do not agree with the order or the delivery

Architect Panel → ERP - Procurement:

  • Purchasing — the same workspace from the Architect Panel
  • Suppliers, Cost Centres, Supplier Statuses and Supplier Classes — the supplier master and its reference lists
  • Purchase Requisitions, Purchase Orders, Goods Receipts and Supplier Invoices — the raw document lists, for looking up and auditing

Who uses it

The console admits holders of ERP: Purchasing, ERP: Payables, ERP: Approvals, ERP: Inventory and ERP: Finance. What each person can do inside is decided per document type:

  • Purchasing (buyers): create requisitions, orders and receipts; read bills.
  • Inventory (storemen): create goods receipts; read requisitions and orders.
  • Payables: create supplier invoices; read the rest; see the payment run.
  • Approvals: read and decide requisitions, orders and bills routed to them.
  • Finance: release payments and lift supplier holds.

The company grant applies on top: you only see and act on documents of companies you have access to.

The screen

  • Work waiting: Open requisitions, Orders awaiting approval, Receipts not invoiced and Bills on match hold. Each card opens the list it counts.
  • Tabs: Requisitions, Purchase orders, Goods receipts and Supplier invoices (only those you can read), My approvals (for approvers, with a count), Suppliers, and Pay suppliers (Payables and Finance).
  • Raise a requisition opens the requisition form for anyone who can create one.

One document

Open any document to see its header, lines (item, quantity, price, tax, account and cost centre), related documents and history. What you can do lists the moves open to you now, such as Submit for approval, Issue to supplier or Book in, and Create ... buttons for the next document in the chain. A move that needs a reason asks for one. Supplier invoices also show the Invoice match panel and Re-check against the order.

Purchase orders, goods received notes and bills carry the Print and send and Attachments & notes cards, so an order can be e-mailed to the supplier as a PDF and the supplier's own invoice filed beside the bill (see Document Output & Letterheads).

My approvals

The My approvals tab lists purchase documents waiting for your decision, with the supplier, company, amount, who asked and what decision is asked for, and buttons to approve or reject (a rejection needs a reason). The same items appear in the platform-wide Approvals Inbox, which also holds workflow approvals; see The Approvals Inbox.

Suppliers

The Suppliers tab lists suppliers with filters for Code or name, Company, Class, Status and Hold. Purchasing, Payables and Finance can create and edit suppliers: code, name, company, class, status, payment terms, currency, default expense account and tax code, contact details (the contact e-mail is where remittance advice goes) and address.

Anyone who maintains suppliers can press Hold and give the reason, which the buyer who is refused will read. A supplier on hold cannot be ordered from or paid. Only Finance or ERP administration can Release a hold, so a buyer cannot clear a stop placed by accounts. A supplier status with blocks ordering ticked has the same effect on every supplier that holds it.

What goes wrong

  • "You do not have access to any purchase documents": your group has no ERP role or no company. Ask an ERP administrator.
  • A card is missing: cards for documents you cannot read are hidden; the storeman does not see bills.
  • Bills on match hold opens a list rather than the queue: the Invoice Match Queue is for Payables and Finance; others see the bills only.

Worked example

A buyer opens Purchasing and sees three orders awaiting approval and five receipts not invoiced. A storeman, who holds only ERP: Inventory, sees the Goods receipts tab and the order list but no bills. The accounts payable clerk sees two bills on match hold and opens the Invoice Match Queue from the Payables section of the sidebar.

Recommendations

  • Give each job its own role: buyers, storemen, payables and Finance.
  • Use the cards as a work list; each opens exactly the documents it counts.
  • Keep supplier contact e-mails current; orders and remittances are sent there.
  • Use Hold with a clear reason rather than deactivating a supplier you may use again.